Alcoholics Anonymous
by TheUtsukushiiYume
Summary: There comes a time, in everyone's life when they realize that they've put up with something for too long. When you can no longer control the outcome of an action you've engaged in. There comes a time when you realize that it has become too much to handle on your own, and so…you ask for help. (Set after 4th Shinobi war)


Alcoholics Anonymous

A Naruto Three-shot

Steps 1-6

Inspired by: Anna Nalick's _"Just Breath"_

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other copy written material used or referenced to in the making of this Fanfiction.

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_There comes a time, in everyone's life when they realize that they've put up with something for too long. When you can no longer control the outcome of an action you've engaged in. There comes a time when you realize that it has become too much to handle on your own, and so…you ask for help. _

Fists slammed into flesh and screams echoed throughout the room. Warm drops of life essence coated teeth and dripped from pale lips; a hand, clenched into a fist, wiped it away and pressed forward. Coughing and wheezing, a rib is broken from a knee to the abdomen. The sound of hands hitting flesh grew louder and louder until it was unbearable. Eyes squinted open slowly to stare at the white ceiling of a bedroom, her bedroom. The banging she heard carried over from her dream and she realized it wasn't the dream. Someone was at the door.

Hinata turned over with a groan and took a glance at the hanging clock on the wall. Who would be here at two in the morning? She planted her feet on the cold hardwood floor and stood slowly. Her head was pounding and her stomach bubbled from the numerous amounts of Sake bottles that littered her bedroom floor. She gagged as she took a step forward and swallowed down the wave of nausea that assaulted her. Slowly and tensely she inched her way to the still banging door, one hand pressed to her trembling lips and the other feeling around the dark hallways of her small apartment. Upon reaching the front door, she felt for the porch light and switched it on before checking through the peep-hole.

"Sakura…" She whispered. She unlocked it, breathing deeply, and pulled it open. "…"

"C-can you help me?" The woman asked, her shaking hand running through her pink locks gingerly. Her normal ninja wear was askew and wrinkled. Dark bags hung under her sorrow laden eyes and her cheeks seemed sunken in as if she had been starving herself. Her eyes shifted nervously to the ground and her hand slid from her hair to rub the raised bumps on her bare arm.

"With what?" Hinata's voice was rough, almost as if it hadn't been used in a while. She watched as Sakura shifted from foot to foot. When she didn't answer right away Hinata sighed and stepped aside so that Sakura could come out of the cold. When the two of them were inside, she closed and locked the door. "Well? What is it?" Sakura looked around the room, her body visibly shaking. The woman had to have been freezing in order to shake like that. Hinata pulled the pinkette farther into the apartment and pushed her down into the couch, reaching over and grabbing the giant comforter off the floor; she threw it around the kunnoichi's shoulders. Sakura stared at the floor, her teeth chattering loudly in the silence. Hinata stared at her for a second before sighing and taking a seat beside her. She shouldn't have let her in. She shouldn't be helping her. She shouldn't have even opened the door, but she did. What now?

"I…I have a problem…" Sakura started. She turned her head toward Hinata, a deep frown on her face. "I've…Been drinking…a lot…"

Hinata scoffed. "Haven't we all?"

Sakura looked at the ground again, another chill shuddering through her. "I don't want to be like this…Everything…everything has changed. I just want…I want to be normal again."

Hinata would have raised her eyebrow at that statement but her head hurt too much. "So why did you come to me? I have nothing else to give to you."

The pinkette looked up at Hinata again, her eyes watery. "I don't love him…I really really don't…" She sucked in a shaking breath. "He drinks too, he's so different. I don't know what to do anymore. I thought that our love could make it through this but—"

"-You never loved him, so how could you think something so stupid in the first place?" Hinata looked away from her. It hurt too much. It hurt to talk about him, about anyone really. She didn't want to feel the pain and she didn't want to talk.

"Hinata, I…I need your help. Please? Can we work together on this? Can…Can we get sober? Together?"

She sat silent. If this were a year ago, she might've said yes. A year ago, her heart was still soft. A year ago she still had hope. A year ago she hadn't be betrayed by the one person she put all her hope and trust into. Standing up slowly, as not to agitate her stomach, she started walking toward her bedroom. "No. I don't want anything to do with you. Eat want you want—there's plenty of greasy stuff in there—but I want you gone in the morning." Before going to her bed room, she made a stop in the bathroom. She had to throw up.

Ten minutes later, Hinata fell back onto her bed with a groan. Her eyes stare straight above so that she once again concentrated on the ceiling. She didn't want to stop drinking. Sake made the pain go away. Sake made her forget and with enough sake; she didn't dream. Why would she want to get rid of that? Why would she want to feel nervous, depressed and suicidal again? Why would she want to remember all the pain and the hurt and the madness when she had Sake to make it all disappear? Reaching out to her side she picked up a bottle and held it in front of her. Who cares if she hadn't seen her friends in months? Who cares if she can't remember the date or when she last took a shower? It doesn't matter. Nothing does.

With those last thoughts, her eyes drifted closed and she fell into a fitful sleep.

In the morning she stumbled into the kitchen and pulled a fresh bottle of sake out, knocking it back as if it were water. She had become a pro at this. The very moment that the alcohol settled into her blood stream, she smiled. She felt energized and relaxed at the same time. She wished she could show her father how awesome she had turned out and with that thought came anger. How dare her father destroy her? How dare he throw her away like yesterday's trash? She looked around the room briefly before drunkenly grabbing her coat and throwing it on. She slipped into her sandals and ripped the door open, intent on giving her father a piece of her mind. She swayed back and forth down the streets of Kanoha, not noticing the looks passerby's were giving her. When she nearly tripped over a trash can she laughed and stumbled into a wall. When she reached the gates of the main house, she smirked. She was going to tell her old man off. She pushed passed the guards and fell through the gates. She didn't care, she was on a mission.

She looked around the courtyard and spotted a familiar face by the fountain. Hanabi. Picking herself up, she half stumbled half walked over to her. "Haaanaaabi! Wheresh Fader?" She draped an arm over the younger Hyuga's shoulder and gave her what she thought to be a bright smile.

Hanabi's eyes widened at the sudden appearance of her sister. "You don't remember?"

Hinata giggled and leaned her head on Hanabi's shoulder. "Remembers what? Huh? Wheresh fader? I needz to talk to him."

"He's dead. Remember? He died two months ago."

Hinata stared at her sister and giggled. "You're shilly. Faderz not dead. I woulda hada funeral."

Hanabi pushed her sister off of her, and expression of anger crossing her face. "We did have a funeral. You were pissed drunk, that why you don't remember!"

The eldest sister shook her head, her matted hair flying side to side. "Noooes, I woulda remembers."

"You sicken me…"

"Dats not ni—"

_Smack~_

"Your father is dead! You were too drunk to remember it and you're too drunk to comprehend what I am telling you. Your. Father. Is. DEAD. Do you fucking get it?!"

Hinata held a hand up to her reddened cheek, surprise written on her face. Dead…really? Is he? She didn't know. Had she really been so out of it to have forgotten her own father's funeral? She stood up. She turned and she ran out of the compound. She had to get away from there. She kept running until she couldn't breathe and only then did she stop running. She braced her hands on her knees as she took in deep breaths, trying to get her heart rate under control.

She wasn't losing it. She couldn't be…

"Hinata? Hinata, is that you?"

The Hyuga looked up and into the eyes of her teammates. "K-kiba…Siino…" She reached out to give Kiba a hug but he recoiled in disgust. "Wahts wrong?"

"You smell like shit and…are you…are you drunk?"

Shino pushed his glasses farther up his nose as he stared at her.

"I juss found out…My fader died…"

The two men looked at each other before looking back at her. "You did not just find out. Why? Because you attended his funeral."

"No I dizzn't. I woulda remembers…"

"Hinata, you're drunk."

"I'm not."

"You are."

"No I's not."

"Hinata, you're fucking drunk and you're hurting my nose. I can't fucking talk to you like this." With that Kiba stormed off. "Get some fucking help." Shino nodded and followed behind him, hands stuffed into his pockets.

Hinata watched them disappear with a frown. Unknowingly, tears fell from her eyes and her breathing became labored. She started walking with no destination in mind. She just fallowed where her feel took her. Over grass hills and down cobblestone paths she walked until she looked up and realized she was at the shrine her mother brought her to as a child. The thought of her mother brought a smile to her face but that was short lived. The thought of her mother encouraged the thoughts of her father to come forth and attack her. Ever hit she had ever been dealt at the hand of her father replayed in in her head. Every failure she was forced to recognize and every name he called her. All the memories her brought to the front of her mind.

Thoughts of her father brought memories of her cousin. How he ridiculed and humiliated her in front of her classmates. How he trained her after Naruto left, and lastly how he died in front of her. For her. Lastly, the memories of Neji brought memories of Naruto. How she loved and cared deeply for him and how, as soon as the war was over, he ran straight to Sakura. How she was forced to endure their wedding ceremony. The pain. All the hurt she had been holding and hiding finally came out. Falling to her knees, she wept. She screamed. She ached. She realized that she had lost herself to a monster.

"Oh kami! Why?! Why me?!"

Her chest hurt so bad, it hurt too much to breath. She cried anyway, and cried some more. Soon her wails trickled down to sobs and sobs to whimpers and she looked up at the shrine. For the first time, in twenty years, Hinata bowed her head and she whispered the prayers her mother taught her. She didn't want to suffer any more. She wanted to be happy. She wanted to be normal. Then she confessed to everything wrong she did in the past three years. She admitted to all the terrible things she thought and finally when she had nothing else to say, she sat there with her eyes closed and head bowed.

Later that day, she stumbled over to Sakura's apartment and knocked on the door. When the pinkette opened, she gave her a soft smile. "If you still want…I would like to get sober with you. I'm not a very good person…I want to fix that. So if you want, we can do this together…"

_There comes a time when you have to ask for help. Who knows what you must go through to get there but you'll know, when the time is right, what you must do to get stronger._

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_A/N: So, I guess I'm feeling spiritual? Idk. I'm not telling my religion or anything but sometimes it really helps to get down on your knees and pray…Idk…oh gosh, I crying. Anyway ttyl~_


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